the science writer and author of eight books will look at science history, popular culture and computer networking and politics live at noon eastern on booktv on c-span2. >> this is the first parish church in brunswick, maine, and its significance to the story of uncle tom's cabin is that in many ways the story began here. it's here in this pew, pew number 23, that harriet beecher stowe, by her account, saw a vision of uncle tom being whipped to death. now, uncle tom, as you probably know, is the title character, the hero of her 1852 novel, "uncle tom's cabin." uncle tom's cabin was written very much as a protest novel to the fugitive slave law which mandated in 1850 that anyone in the north, particularly new england where the abolitionists lived, if anyone in the north were to aid or abet a fugitive slave, they themselves would be imprisoned or fined for breaking the law. and this was the bill that was seen as a kind of compromise between the north and south to avoid war. so that was part of what the novel was trying to do was to say, listen, i'm a person, harriet beecher stowe, and i'